Please, join the class' Facebook group. All the communications regarding the class should go through the Facebook group, except for appointment requests.

Course Description and Objectives

Microeconomic Theory 1 is the first half of the two-semester core microeconomics sequence in the MA program. The course aims at introducing you to graduate-level microeconomic theory. Topics discussed include producer and consumer theory, competitive markets, monopoly, and general equilibrium.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course, you should:

posses a critical understanding of selected topics in modern microeconomic theory at the introductory graduate-level of difficulty

understand how mathematical methods and rigorous analysis are used to formalize economic concepts and ideas

be able to set up and solve mathematical models describing specific economic problems at the introductory graduate-level of difficulty.

Course Prerequisites

Knowledge of basic calculus and real analysis is required. An undergraduate-level course in Microeconomics is also desirable.

Assessment

There will be four or five homework assignments, a midterm exam, one mini exams, and a final exam.

Homework assignments will be available on the course webpage. The solutions must be hand in in written form to the teaching assistant and must be worked out in groups (only one submission per group). Groups will be composed by 4 or 5 students, will be determined by the instructor, and will change regularly. Solutions will be presented during the seminars.

The course grade will be determined as a weighted average of homework scores (10%), one mini exam (5% total), the midterm exam score (35%), and the final exam score (50%). Midterm and final exams will cover all the material explained in class and all the material explained during the seminars. The final exam will cover the entire semester. Around 50% of the questions in both final and midterm exam will be taken from the problem sets assigned in class. The mini exam will be held between the second and the third week of class (specific date TBA) and will be 30 minutes long. Depending on the performance of the class, a second mini exam may be held few weeks after the midterm.

Finally, regular class attendance is a necessary condition in order to achieve a passing grade. Class participation is strongly encouraged and will be used to break ties between different letter grades.

Course Readings

There is no required textbook for the course. However, the material presented in class will be taken from two books:

Both books are available at the library for consultation. If you feel you are rusty on microeconomics or you have never taken a microeconomics course before, I suggest you also make use of one of the more recent editions of